The Labyrinth of Time
by agent000
Summary: Merlin is quoted to have said he remembered the future and anticipated the past. Edward is about to find out exactly what that means...
1. Chapter 1

**_Hello to all my lonely readers who have been waiting for months for me to write another chapter for SOME fanfic and have been waiting in vain! Welcome to my 50th fanfic! ((Blows party whistle)) Geez, I don't have a life, but oh well, I guess I just really like writing? Eh heh..._**

**_Anyway, I wrote up the first three chapters of this a while ago but never uploaded them, so I'll upload all three of them shortly. The chapters after that, you'll have to wait a bit, but I'll try to get to it quickly. We'll see. Hope you enjoy it in any case, hehe._**

**_Disclaimer: AdventureAddict thinks she's a kitty and is playing with my hair right now, which makes it difficult to see what I'm typing, though that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist._**

There ought to be a law against bizarre things happening without warning or reason. The guy across the ping pong table looked normal enough to Edward, though something about him made him a little uneasy. Maybe he was just thinking too hard on it. The guy had simply invited him to a game of ping pong, after all.

But he knew from experience never to let his guard down. If something made him uneasy, it would be thoroughly checked before he even thought about dropping his guard. Edward steeled himself as the stranger prepared to serve the ball. Whoever he was, he would come to regret the day he challenged the great Edward Elric to a battle of ping pong.

The game started, and they passed the ball back and forth between them for several minutes before Edward made a wrong turn and lost the ball. He growled under his breath and knelt down to pick up the ball. So Mystery Guy had managed to score one point. He was pretty good, but not good enough. That one point would be his last.

Edward stood back up and glared at the guy, who had crossed his arms and was now laughing at his expense. Perhaps that was what made him uneasy. Maybe he'd known all along that he was a gloating jerk.

He served the ball, and they played for several more minutes before Edward lost once again. He growled under his breath once again as he went to fetch the ball and he swore that the guy must be cheating somehow. But how does one cheat at ping pong? He was sure the ping pong mastermind across from him would know how to do it.

Before serving this time, Edward quickly scanned his opponent, looking for anything that could've triggered his unease earlier. The guy looked to be in his thirties, and his hair was completely gray. There was nothing so unusual about that except that the guy had grown his hair out and was wearing it in a ponytail. As much as he'd like to point fingers based on that, it seemed a bit pointless since his own hairstyle was quite similar.

Continuing to look, he decided the sunglasses must have been what was bothering him. What kind of creep would wear sunglasses indoors? That had to be how the guy was winning against him. They were specially rigged ping pong sunglasses.

Without warning, he smacked the ball as hard as he could with his paddle, sure that Mr. Ping Pong Cheater wouldn't be able to smack that one back. To his dismay though, the guy managed to not only send it back, but to send it back so fast that it quickly went out of Edward's range.

The strange guy chuckled and started walking towards Edward. "Haven't had many people beat you at this, have you?"

Edward snorted and crossed his arms. "Gee, how could you ever tell?"

That only earned another chuckle from the guy as he placed one foot on a chair in front of Edward and laced his fingers together over his knee. He leaned forward and said, "You're not even going to ask me how I ever managed to beat the great Edward Elric at a game of ping pong?"

Edward had indeed been wondering that, but he wasn't about to admit that to the pompous jerk. He stuck his tongue out and turned away from him.

The guy shrugged and said, "If that's the way you're going to be, then I might as well just keep you guessing."

Edward snapped his head back to face the man and said, "Oh yeah? Well, I bet you really have no skill at all and just faked the whole thing. Who's the loser now?"

Why he was reacting so strongly to his losing a simple ping pong game, he couldn't say. He knew he was looking a bit ridiculous over a game, but something about this guy just didn't jibe well with him.

The guy just laughed at Edward's rant and shook his head in amusement, not at all the reaction Edward had been expecting. This was so unfair. This crazy guy needed to be cut down to size, and Edward balled his hands into fists, just in case.

The guy stopped laughing and looked at Edward, a bemused smile on his face. "I suppose I'm cheating in a way, but you wouldn't understand if I tried to explain it right now."

So the guy admitted to cheating, but how does one cheat at ping pong? "Try me."

The guy just smiled his annoying, mocking smile, and said, "You're not ready to understand just yet, but rest assured, you will beat me one day. I guarantee it."

Edward huffed and a few strands of his hair blew out of his face as he did so. "How can you claim to guarantee what will happen in the future?"

Another annoying smirk. "Have you ever heard of remembering the future and anticipating the past?"

A sigh. "Some wizard said that, I think," said Edward.

"Keep it in mind," said the stranger as he reached up and pulled off his sunglasses. "You'll need to remember it very soon."

"Why, are you going to give me a pop quiz?" Edward stopped in his rant long enough to look into the stranger's eyes, now that they were exposed, and he froze. Those eyes were the same golden color as his own. That was common within his own family, but generally not outside of it.

"Do I know you?" asked Edward.

"Not yet," said the stranger, "But you will. Soon. Now listen," he stood up normally and walked over to Edward. There was something in his hand, a small vial full of some sort of blue liquid. "Someone is out to get you, and he's such an evil genius that he'll succeed and get away with it without any help." He paused and looked at the vial in his hand. Edward stared too and felt his stomach tighten. Now he knew for sure where the bad feeling was coming from. It wasn't the gray-haired stranger, it was the liquid.

"The next time you feel sick, assume you've been poisoned and drink this." He swirled the blue liquid and Edward's stomach did a flip. He wouldn't come close to drinking that so long as he was alive.

The stranger continued. "This will neutralize the poison and save your life, but it will carry some rather, um, unexpected consequences as side effects."

Edward raised his eyebrow. Just who did this guy think he was, anyway? Who would be crazy enough to randomly trust the word of a complete stranger on how to survive an attack in the future? For all Edward knew, it was probably the stranger himself who wanted to kill him.

Edward crossed his arms. "Yeah, and how would you know what going to happen in the future?"

The guy reached forward and put the vial in Edward's pocket, gave it a light pat, and then stood back up. "I'm simply remembering it. You would do well to learn to remember it too." He took a step closer to Edward and rubbed the boy's hair with a strong fist. It burned and Edward tried to pull away, but the guy simply grabbed his chin and forced him to look at him.

"Kid, time doesn't just run in one direction. It's not like a line on a graph or a chart. Everything that has ever happened is happening now, and everything that will ever happen has already happened."

A snort escaped from Edward's nose and he pulled his chin out of the guy's grasp. "And what's the point of telling me all this? Why would you even care if everything's already preordained?"

The stranger didn't flinch or look even the slightest bit angry at the question. He actually smiled at Edward and put a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder. "Nothing is preordained, and the only constant is change, but until one understands time, deliberate change is impossible."

Edward huffed again. This was getting old fast. He wanted the guy to stop speaking in cryptic language, and he wanted him to tell him right now who he was. "Alright, Mr. Bigshot, if you're so smart, why don't you tell me what's going to happen next?"

The guy smirked and then pointed to the door behind Edward. "A girl is about to walk through that door carrying a tray of food. Unbeknown to her, one of her shoes is untied, so she is going to trip over her shoelaces, splash the hot soup all over herself, and then be rushed off to the hospital."

"And you're not going to do anything to stop this." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. He had met people who were as uncaring as this jerk before, but he hadn't expected to have one standing in front of him like this while calmly telling him the fate of an innocent girl. Then again, it wasn't likely to happen. No one could actually tell the future.

The next moment, the door was kicked open, and in walked a girl with a tray full of food. There was nothing unusual about people carrying trays around here, but he couldn't help but notice the steaming bowl of soup on the tray. Edward glanced down at her feet and was horrified to realize that she was indeed walking around with one loose shoelace.

"Hey, watch out," he called, "Your-"

But it was too late. The girl had looked up at him when he'd called, only to forget to watch where she was stepping and trip over her shoelaces. As she fell, the soup splashed all over her, and she hit her head upon landing. Edward clenched and unclenched his hands several times before getting his wits together enough to run over to the phone and call an ambulance.

It wasn't long before the paramedics arrived, but Edward couldn't hear a word of what they said and could barely see what they were doing. His pulse was pounding in his ears. That strange guy had known this was going to happen, but how? More than that, why hadn't he tried to stop it? How could he be that inconsiderate? Surely with that kind of foreknowledge, he could have saved her from this trouble.

"I already tried to help her," said the stranger, almost as if he'd read Edward's thoughts. "Some things just cannot be changed."

"When did you try to help her? I didn't see you do jack!"

"The first time I ever saw her do that."

"Huh? She does this regularly?"

"No, uh… You'll understand that later." He chuckled nervously like he'd just let something slip that he hadn't intended. Edward smirked and prepared to move in for the kill since he was finally getting to him.

"Why is everything 'later' to you? What ever happened to your whole talk of all time being now and all that?"

The guy sighed and ran his fingers through his bangs. "The instant I tell you anything, your life will change for good, so I've been postponing that for as long as possible."

"Are you thinking I'm too weak to handle it?"

Another chuckle from the man. This was getting annoying to Edward, but he couldn't help but notice the nervousness in the man's voice this time. "No, you're not weak, Ed. I wouldn't be here now if you were."

"What do you mean?" said Edward.

The man took out a soft cloth and began cleaning his sunglasses. They didn't look all that dirty to Edward, so he had a sneaking suspicion that the guy was simply trying to get out of answering him. Edward growled. "For goodness' sake, just tell me what the heck is going on!"

The man sighed, put the glasses down, and looked up at Edward, fixing his eyes upon him. He took a deep breath and said, "I'm you."

**_Hope you liked the chapter, and hope to see you back here soon for the next one. If you have suggestions or criticism, feel free to comment. Now I have to go punish AdventureAddict for being a pest while I'm trying to type. :P_**


	2. Chapter 2

**_Ha, forgot to update this right off. Been hectic over here, but at least I remembered, right? Right... (ahem) There are a few typos in here that I had in there from when I typed it up months ago, and I haven't felt like correcting them yet, so hopefully you can forgive me. :P Hope you like the chapter, in any case!_**

**_Disclaimer: I ate a donut. What, did you expect me to say something obvious like that I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist?_**

"What the heck does that mean?" Edward's eye were ablaze with indignation. How dare this guy take him for that much of an idiot simply because he was a kid. Any intelligent person knew that Edward Elric was no ordinary kid. He had been through more in his young life than most people experienced in their entire lifetimes.

The strange guy sighed and ran his fingers through his bangs. What was this guy trying to pull, trying to make a stupid claim like that? Edward didn't have a single gray hair on his head, and he wasn't nearly so old as this weirdo in front of him.

"This isn't actually the time I belong in," said the stranger, "I belong in the future, but I-"

"You expect me to believe that the me from the future just hopped right out of a science fiction novel and came back to warn me of impending doom?" Edward snorted. "Riiiiiiiiiight, that makes total sense."

"It's the truth." The guy shrugged. "Sort of."

Edward rolled his eyes. How stupid and bizarre could things get? It was bad enough that this guy seemed to be capable of predicting the future somehow, but now it seemed he was bent on making Edward go crazy.

"Yeah, well, if you were really me, you'd have known I wouldn't believe you that easily."

"If at all," said the guy. "That's why I didn't want to bring it up in the first place. You didn't need to know just yet."

"Even though I'm supposedly about to die if I don't follow your advice? Wouldn't it be critical that I believe you in that case?"

The stranger shook his head. "There was no need. I remember what happens next, though I suppose my trying to avoid explaining it was pointless, since I remembered that too."

Edward crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes as he glared at the stranger. There was no way this guy could be him from the future. The thought was ridiculous. If time travel were possible in any time, wouldn't time travelers be popping up at random points in history?

"I know what you're thinking," said the stranger. Edward's eyes widened a bit in anticipation of what the guy would say, even though he hadn't said it yet. He had been right about the girl, and that situation still made him angry. Was this guy able to read minds or something? And supposing that this guy really was himself from the future, was he destined to become so jaded so as not to life a finger to help a girl in need when he knew what would happen?

"I'm not telepathic, silly, I just happen to remember what I was thinking when I was… you."

That made Edward squirm. While he was relieved to have the guy admit that he wasn't telepathic, it was still quite unnerving to have this guy continue to make his case that the two were the same person. Actually, scratch that last statement. It was even _more_ unnerving than believe the guy had telepathic powers. He hated to admit it, but he almost wished the guy would just claim to be psychic.

"I have been popping up at random points in your-our-history." The guy waved between the two of them to illustrate his point. "I've tried hard to conceal my presence from you so you could grow up as normally as possible… under the circumstances." He bowed his head apologetically and Edward felt his muscles tense up. The guy hadn't even said much, and het his mannerisms somehow told Edward that he knew everything that Edward had gone through.

"Time travelers do their best to conceal their presence from those who move 'normally' through time. We don't want to disrupt the balance of time."

"We?" said Edward, "now it sounds like you belong to some cult group."

The other guy shrugged and smiled somewhat timidly. "We do have a sort of support group that meets up periodically, but they're not exactly religious."

"Time traveler support groups?" said Edward incredulously. "Okay, I swear, you're insane. You don't know what you're talking about and are spewing out nonsense." He plugged up both of his ears when he saw the other guy make an attempt to speak. "La la la, I'm not listening, la la la!"

The other guy shrugged and quit attempting to speak, much to Edward's relief, but then he turned and walked out of the room. Edward stood waiting for several minutes, but the guy didn't return. He hoped that was a good thing, though he had to admit that he was a bit unnerved by the whole ordeal.

That guy couldn't have been telling the truth, he reasoned. Not only was it unscientific to believe time travel was possible, but the crazy guy had now gone and abandoned him when supposedly his life was in danger. If that guy was really him from the future, wouldn't risking Edward's life be risking his own as well? So things obviously weren't as that guy had said.

But that guy had still made some accurate predictions and insights. Edward shook it off. Anyone could make a few right guesses and appear to be a prophet of some sort. This was probably just an evil practical joke.

Suddenly he laughed. As a practical joke, this was actually a pretty funny situation. Now he got the joke. He was way too gullible and almost fell for what that guy had said. That whole setup had been very clever. Who had been smart enough to pull it off? Maybe it was Al. His brother knew him better than anybody.

Edward caught himself smirking. Al was good, but not good enough. He'd get his revenge, and Al would regret the day he'd tried to pull that kind of joke on him. With an evil laugh, he walked out of the room.

"That was great, Al!" Edward stepped into their room and slapped his brother on the back. "I didn't even know you could pull off a joke that awesome. I don't give you enough credit."

"Why, what did I do?" said Al.

"You know, that time travel joke." He pointed back over his shoulder with his thumb. He turned and looked out the door, chuckled once, and then went and closed it. "You almost had me going there. That guy you sent was a pretty convincing older me."

Al looked confused as wrinkles were appearing between his eyebrows. "What time travel joke? I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Aw, come on, Al," Edward slapped his brother on the back, who jumped and yelled at Edward to stop it, though that only made him laugh. "I figured out your joke. There's no need to keep pretending. Now we can both laugh at it together."

Then Al sighed. It wasn't a happy sigh like Edward would have expected in such a circumstance, nor was it sad as if reluctant to let go of such a good joke. It wasn't even a bored sigh, which he could have halfway understood. This was an irritated sigh, and Edward couldn't place why his little brother would be irritable right now.

"We can laugh together if you'll tell me what the heck is going on," said Al. Edward squirmed at the harsh tone of his brother's voice. He only talked like that when he was being sincere, and sincerely annoyed at that. He hated to admit it, but it was looking like Al really had had nothing to do with that guy's showing up just a few moments before. It still smacked of a practical joke, but Al clearly had had nothing to do with it. Perhaps Roy had. That sounded like something he would do for sure. He was known for doing crazy practical jokes.

Edward shrugged. "Sorry, Al, I thought you'd done it, but maybe it was Roy…" Al didn't even wait for him to complete his thought.

"Done _what?_"

Now Edward was doing the sighing. Poor Al was getting all flustered, and he wasn't doing a thing to help the situation. "Nothing, it's just…"

"Just what?"

Edward blew his bangs out of his eyes. He understood his little brother being annoyed at being uniformed about the situation, but he hated it when Al got so impatient for him to reveal information. He didn't always have the words right away like Al did, and he didn't want to sound like a fumbling idiot while he was searching for words.

"A guy came up to me claiming to be me from the future. Funny joke, huh?"

Al looked perplexed. "I don't understand."

Edward smacked his face. He should've known saying it that way would make no sense to Al and make him sound stupid. He would have to try this again and be more descriptive lest he make a fool of himself again. He pulled his hand away from his face and rolled his eyes at his prior stupidity, though he realized after he did it that he might be causing Al to think Ed was rolling his eyes at him. He mentally chastised himself for being stupid yet again. Then, vowing to make a smart move for once, he took a deep breath and said, "I was playing ping pong with a guy who claimed to be a time traveler. I know someone's playing a clever joke, since time travel is impossible."

"Oh, I see," said Al, who then put his hand on his chin like he was preparing to think. "He claimed to be you from the future?"

"Yes," said Edward, relieved that Al was finally getting it and he didn't have to say stupid things any longer.

"Did he have a long, gray ponytail?"

Edward's eyes opened wide in shock. "How did you know that?" Perhaps Al really did have something to do with this whole ordeal after all.

Al shrugged. "I've seen him before, when I was younger. I was playing alone outside and he came up and started talking to me like he knew me. Something about him always seemed familiar to me."

"And you never told me about this why?"

"Because," Al said, "The guy told me that telling you about him before you met him yourself would hurt you somehow."

"And you believed him." Edward could sense a literal distaste for the guy rising in his mouth. What was this jerk doing around a little kid? It seemed awfully suspicious for a guy to talk with a little kid and then tell him not to talk about it.

"Hey, I was just a little kid!" Al held his hands up protectively. "By the time I was old enough to think about it, I'd forgotten about it."

Edward rolled his eyes again. "How convenient for him." Al simply chuckled nervously, which only managed to fuel the fire that was already burning in Edward. "What does the jerk want with me? Or you? Why is he stalking us?"

Al licked his lips as though he were hesitant to speak his mind. "What if he really was you from the future?"

"That's ridiculous," snapped Edward.

"Maybe," said Al, but what if it really _was_ true?"

"There's no way that can possibly be true." Edward stamped his foot. He loved his little brother so, but he wished Al wouldn't indulge in random speculation so often. It made his brain hurt trying to keep up. He could still try though, for his brother's sake.

"Even if a way to travel through time is invented in the future, there's no way it'd be discovered soon enough for _me_ to be traveling through time."

"Unless someone from even further in the future gave you the means to do so."

Edward threw his hands up in exasperation. "Al, why are you doing this? That idiot hasn't given us any reason to believe him, so why are you guying into this nonsense?"

Al crossed his arms over his chest. "Has he given you any predictions?"

Edward blinked, but was able to retain his composure even though Al had struck at the one soft spot he had in the whole matter. "How do you know about that?" Maybe the story about the girl had spread faster than he'd thought it would, but if it had, how had Al not known what he was talking about right away? He doubted anyone else even knew the connection between the girl and that guy anyway.

"Because…" said Al, who let out his breath and breathed deeply before continuing, "He made some predictions the last time I saw him, and all of them have come true. Well, almost all of them."

"Ha!" Edward pointed his finger defiantly at Al. "Some omniscient time traveler he is if he can't even predict everything accurately."

Al chuckled, which caused Edward to clench his fist. It wasn't a good sign when Al chuckled like that. It usually indicated that there was something he had stupidly overlooked.

"Brother, the only things that haven't come to pass are the things that haven't happened yet, though they will soon."

Right. Of course the fortune teller's predictions wouldn't be so easily falsified. It made Edward hate him all the more. He hated anything he couldn't understand, and that guy was about as confusing as they came.

Al uncrossed his arms and let them rest at his sides. "Has he given you that vial of blue stuff yet?"

Edward unconsciously reached into his pocket and fingered the vial. Al noticed the movement and nodded knowingly. "So, yet another one of his prophecies has come to pass then."

"Oh, hogwash!" More like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just because someone tells you what they're planning to do doesn't make them a magical psychic dude." His shoulders slumped and he glared at Al though he honestly wasn't quite sure what was making him so darn angry. He half-smirked and then said, "I'm going to pat myself on the head, look!" He then proceeded to do just as he had said. "Wow! I'm a prophet! I foretold the future!"

Al couldn't help but laugh at his brother's antics. Ed raised the corner of his mouth in an expression of smugness. He loved hearing his little brother laugh like that. It made all the tension of the day melt away.

Eventually, Al calmed himself down and cleared his throat to speak. "Seriously though, Brother he has made a lot of predictions that have come to pass that he had nothing to do with, whether you accept it or not. I just want you to be careful."

"Be careful of what?" asked Edward.

"Just be careful," said Al. He placed a hand on Edward's shoulder and looked into his eyes as he said, "I don't know what's going to happen from here on out, but if that guy continues being right, things are probably about to get really weird. Just be careful."

Edward sighed and gently pulled his shoulder out of Al's grasp. "I'll be careful, Al." He shook his head bemusedly. Little brothers had a tendency to worry way too much, though he couldn't honestly say that older brothers were much better.

"I'll be fine," he reiterated, and then he turned to walk out of the room, explaining that he just needed a nap so he could sort through all this stuff. Al understood and gave him a smile and a goodnight hug.

Plopping down into his bed, Edward found his thoughts racing as the vial of blue liquid tingled against his thigh. The stuff was teasing him and probably wouldn't let him rest until he either drank it or destroyed it. Destroying the troublesome stuff sounded more appealing to him, but he couldn't shake the 'what it' feeling from his mind. What if the guy was right? What if he really did have someone seeking his life? What if this stuff really was the only antidote to whatever he was going to be poisoned with?

He shook his head and ran his palm over his face. This was ridiculous. He could be intrigued by this whole incident, but actually taking it seriously was another matter entirely, and it was unacceptable. He was supposed to be a good example for his little brother, and so he couldn't afford to get carried away by wild ideas like this.

Still, it was probably okay to carry the vial with him for a while. Al would yell at him if he caught him without it anyway, so that settled the matter.

He pushed himself up in bed, yawned, and stared at the clock. Five minutes to dinnertime. So much for getting a nap in, unless he wanted to skip a meal over it, which was unthinkable. He pushed himself to his feet with a groan, and groggily made his way out the door.

It probably left a bizarre impression on other people to see him entering the mess hall with his shoulders slumped and his eyes only half open, but he didn't care. If anybody asked, he would just blame Al. Al was the one who'd gotten him worrying in the first place. Well, actually, it was that strange guy he'd met over a game of ping pong, but he doubted anyone would believe his account of that. He'd just be accused of eating too many tacos the night before, which he had. It was so hard to resist ethnic food.

Edward grabbed his tray and groggily sat down in the midst of a bunch of random guys. Normally, he looked for Al and ate with him, but he just wanted to eat and vacate as quickly as possible today. His thoughts were making him exhausted, and Al wasn't helping that one bit. In fact, he was making it worse.

The food wasn't particularly special, and he didn't find the conversation of the other guys all that interesting either. It was actually so dull that he began nodding off to sleep. As soon as he caught himself doing so, he shook his head and slapped himself on the cheek hoping the sting would wake him up.

"Have a rough day, Ed?" said one of the guys sitting near him. Edward nodded and mumbled something about Al and strange time travelers from the future, but the guy hadn't understood a word of what he'd said and asked him to repeat it. Edward sighed, shook his head and mumbled, "Nothing," and finished his meal in silence.

As he was heading back to his room, he started feeling strange. His body didn't feel quite like it belonged to him, and he consequently found himself having a harder time controlling it, and so he stumbled and fell. He gasped and pushed himself to his knees, but he was so disoriented that he couldn't figure out which way was up. He closed his eyes in the hopes of reorienting himself, but the feeling persisted. What was going on? How had he gotten _this_ tired?

Edward kept struggling to keep himself together, but it felt like he was fighting a losing battle. Before too much time had passed, he couldn't even hold himself up, and shortly after that, he couldn't hold himself awake.

When he finally opened his eyes again, the first thing he saw was Al's worried eyes looking back at him. "Brother," Al said upon seeing Edward looking at him, and he leapt up from his seat and threw his arms around his older brother. "Brother…" Al said again, "What happened?"

Edward tried to respond, tried to move his lips, but no sound came forth. He couldn't be this weak from just a bit of mental fatigue, and so he fought with all his strength to speak, but only managed a groan. Now he was starting to worry. If he was too weak to even speak, how was he to know he'd get through this safely? Even if that strange guy was right about someone trying to poison him, how could he possibly take the antidote?

That was right, he _had_ that antidote! He couldn't specifically recall someone trying to kill him, but the guy hadn't promised that he'd understand right away, only that the strange potion would allow him to live through it. He wasn't sure if he could really trust the strange guy, but he had been right about everything up until now, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

Edward looked down at his clothes. Someone had taken off his jacket. A quick scan of the room revealed that it was hanging off of a nearby chair. He summoned up his strength once again and groaned while looking at the chair. Al looked between the chair and Edward a few times before he suddenly got the idea and said, "Oh!" while he bounded up to run Edward's errand.

It wasn't long before Al had fished the vial out of Edward's pocket and held it up triumphantly. "You wanted this, right?"

Edward was still too weak to speak, but he managed a light, "Mmhmm…"

Al pulled the stopper and without another word, tipped the vial and allowed the liquid to drain into Edward's mouth. Edward really hoped Al knew what he was doing. It seemed like he did, so there was probably no need to worry, but he couldn't help himself. He hadn't been instructed on the best way to take the formula, but maybe Al had when he'd met the guy years ago.

The last of the liquid ran out, and Edward swallowed what remained in his mouth and closed his eyes. He didn't know what was to happen now, if anything would besides his getting sicker and dying, but he felt he at least had the strength to wait and find out now, so he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

It seemed a moment later that his eyes fluttered open. His body was starting to tingle. That was probably a good sign, since it meant that his nerves were still alive at the very least. His vision was a bit cloudy though, and that concerned him.

He sat up in bed and scanned the room to find Al sitting in a chair looking at him with a puzzled expression on his face. "What's the matter, Al?" Edward asked.

Al didn't answer, which was unnerving coming from always-having-a-lot-to-say-Al, so Edward followed Al's gaze to his own body and observed as his eyes widened at the sight. It appeared he was shimmering, or perhaps going out of phase. He didn't know how to describe it, but as he looked back up at Al and the two shared concerned looks, he knew that neither one of them had anticipated a reaction like this, and they didn't know what would happen as a result.

As if in answer to their unspoken questions, all the light in the room seemed to momentarily go out as it concentrated on a spot at the foot of Edward's bed. Before Edward could register that something weird was happening, the concentrated light exploded back in the room, returning to all its proper places with a force that knocked one backwards. Something about that explosion ripped open a hold in the spot where the light had condensed a moment before, and a person stepped out just as the hole sealed itself back up.

Edward blinked. No way, he couldn't possibly be_ him_. How could he have possibly gotten in here? There was no possible way…

"Oh, thank goodness," said the guy, "I see you've already taken the antidote."

Edward crossed his arms over his chest. He was not going to let this guy off easily, for any reason. "If it worried you so much, why didn't you just follow me around and make me take it when the time was right?"

The guy shrugged. "I have no idea. I haven't given you the antidote yet."

Edward blinked at the guy. Now he was really confused, and the confusion only made him angrier. "What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

The guy ran his fingers through his bangs, and Edward observed as a couple blond locks tumbled out from underneath the gray. He could've sworn that the guy was completely gray when he'd seen him last, but perhaps he'd been wrong.

"I think I give you the antidote stuff when I'm older. Right now I don't even know where I got it from." The guy gave a sheepish grin and then allowed his hand to rest at his side.

Edward finally saw the resemblance in this guy. He was about halfway between Edward now and the older guy Edward had met earlier. His maturity level was even halfway between the two. This guy had to be himself from the future… but that was ridiculous! Was he really letting himself believe that?

He was. He cleared his throat and said in a wobbly voice, "So what's happening to me?"

The guy sighed and looked around the room, and Edward was afraid for a moment that the guy wouldn't answer. But then he turned back to Edward and said, "I don't know the specifics, but you're going out of phase with time and space."

"Which means?" Edward leaned forward to encourage the guy to be more open with his revealing of information.

"Which means you're about to start your journey through time."

His journey through time? He was about to become the time traveler these two were? What about his life here? And his family and friends? What about Al?

"Don't I get any control over this?" he demanded, but the guy only shrugged. He really hated himself sometimes, both in the present and future.

Al seemed to understand, however, and he came up and wrapped his brother in a big hug. "I was warned that you'd vanish one day, Brother." Al's eyes were sad, and were trying to frown despite Al's forced smile. "Just come back and visit me as often as you're able to… however old I am or you are."

"O-Okay." Was that the right response to a statement like that? Was there even a right statement at all? Not many people when through this sort of thing in their lifetimes, so it was a bit hard to say.

He turned and took one last look at Al and forced a smile onto his face for Al's sake. Al was muttering something, but Edward's hearing and vision were growing more and more cloudy by the moment and he couldn't make it out. So he did the next best thing and returned Al's hug with one of his own and said, "I'll miss you, Al."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, he was outside, lying on the grass. Al and the room had simply vanished without a trace, and he was nowhere near the hospital. He was in the countryside.

**_Hope you liked the chapter. The third one will be up soon, so I hope to see you back here in the near future. Thanks for reading!_**


	3. Chapter 3

**_Well, my review count is building slower than it used to, though I half expected that since I haven't been updating very often as of late, so I might as well not be mean in holding chapters back when it's MY fault I haven't been updating, hehe. I see that some of my old readers are starting to come back though, which is awesome. Thank you! :)_**

**_Anyway, here's the next chapter, so I hope you enjoy it. Once again, there are a few typos. Hopefully they'll stop being so prevalent by the time I write the next chapter, but we'll see. It's National Novel Writing Month, so in order to write as much as my goal is, I sort of have to rush. ;)_**

**_Disclaimer: Oh what a tangled web we weave when Ed gets his auto-mail stuck in my hair. Darn you, Ed! Use the brush next time, dur! And no, I don't own him. I refuse to claim ownership of someone who doesn't have the sense to use a brush on tangly hair. :P_**

Edward slowly pushed himself up. He didn't feel dizzy anymore. That was a surprise. A quick glance around revealed that his vision was no longer blurry either. Did that little vial of potion really do as he was told it would do, or was all this just one big hallucination? He'd never hallucinated like this before, not even when he was sick. Or at least, he didn't think he had. A hallucination could convince him it was new too.

He decided to try standing, and so he put one foot in front of the other and pushed himself up to a standing position. Still no dizziness, still no fatigue, still no blurry vision, and no other signs of sickness. It was gone, really and truly gone! He'd never in his life seen sickness get over that fast. This could all be part of a very convincing hallucination, but he was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

Now, where exactly was he, and where should he go? He scratched his chin and looked around at his surroundings. Grass, trees, lake. All things one would expect to find in the countryside, but that lake looked a little familiar. He took a few steps toward it. Something told him that _was_ his lake, but how could it be? He'd been nowhere near his hometown just a moment ago.

Then again, if this was a hallucination, it made perfect sense. He sighed, somewhat disappointed since that would mean he'd wake up sick, unless the sickness was part of the hallucination too. At least he'd be able to see Al again when he woke up though.

He leaned over the water of the lake and scratched at something that was stuck between his teeth. The water rippled welcomingly beneath him as it reflected the vivid blue sky above him. He sighed and looked up at the sky himself, just in case the lake happened to be lying to him. One never knew what they could trust these days.

But the sky turned out to be just as vividly blue as the lake had shown, if not even bluer. That was certainly not Central City's skyline. Central barely even had a sky they could call blue, let alone a vivid one. That settled it for Ed; he wasn't in Central anymore. But that begged the question of where he was, so he stood up and took another look around. All he could see were the same things he saw before.

This was puzzling, and a bit annoying. Edward scratched his head and looked around a third time for some clue as to where he was or where he should go, when he finally saw a little footpath that had been worn into the ground heading away from the lake. Something about that was trying to click in his mind, but he shrugged it off. All lakes near human habitation had little footpaths, didn't they?

He got on the path and walked for a few minutes, constantly straining his eyes for any sign of familiarity. Maybe he would have to ask the first person he met where he was. That surely wasn't too weird of a question. Travelers got lost sometimes.

But the next moment convinced him he wouldn't need to ask that question after all. He had come to a complete stop and stared at a house some distance away, afraid to approach it, lest weird things happen.

The sign clearly read Rockbell Auto-mail. That meant that he had to be in Reisenburgh, but he had no memory of how he had gotten here. It was insane. If he went in there, would he get Winry yelling at him for coming without warning her and without bringing Al along? Probably, but she'd be even angrier if she found out he had been through town and hadn't said a word to her while he was there. It was probably for the best that he pay a visit.

He took a deep breath for courage and sauntered up to the front door. He raised his fist and paused in front of the door, took another deep breath and reminded himself to be courageous, and then he did three tiny knocks.

The next moment, he was mentally chastising himself for knocking so quietly. No one would be able to hear those knocks over the making of auto-mail, and he didn't think he'd be able to force himself to get enough courage to knock again, and…

The door opened, and a young man a little older than him stepped out and said, "Can I help you?"

All Edward could do was stand and stare, though he felt embarrassed by this action and knew his cheeks were probably turning red, but he couldn't move. Stupid unresponsive body, always freezing up on him at the most inopportune moments.

A moment later a young woman came to the door with a baby in her arms. "Who is it, honey?" she asked as she got to the door. She took one look at Edward and her eyebrows raised slightly. "Dear me, but you look an awful lot like a younger version of Hohenheim. Are you related?"

Confusion seemed to linger in his eyes and he had to batter them to get it out, but he finally managed a hesitant, "…Yes."

Finally the man and woman smiled at him, and the woman said, "Really? Are you here on a visit?"

Edward didn't know what to say in response to that. He was so confused. If only someone would just pop up and tell him exactly what was going on around him, he would appreciate it.

As if in answer to his unasked question, the baby started crying, and the mother started rocking it back and forth, saying, "It's okay. It's okay, Winry."

At this, Edward's eyes opened wide and he wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to blink again. That little baby was Winry? Then why was he so old in comparison to her? He looked at the people who had greeted him, and something in his head finally clicked. These were Winry's parents. He hadn't seen them since he was a small child, as they had died in the Ishbalan war. Had it really happened? Had he really traveled through time?

Then a voice he recognized instantly broke through the awkward silence surrounding the little group as Pinako said, "Everyone either come in or stay out. I don't like to make auto-mail with the bugs. A wrench is a terrible flyswatter." Edward grimaced at her remark. Something told him she had actually tried to kill a fly with a wrench. He was a little scared to ask the result. Now he understood better where Winry got it from.

Everyone chuckled, except for Ed, who was still grimacing, and Winry, who didn't know what to make of all these crazy people doing crazy things and would someone just please get her bottle already! The two parents turned to head back inside, when the mother turned her head, noticed that someone wasn't following properly, and said, "Come on in. We welcome visitors. We could have some tea."

He wasn't completely sure if going into this strangely familiarly unfamiliar house was imposing on these people, but he decided to just go in anyway. It would help him to understand better what was going on if he took the time to talk to some people, and he knew these people, even though they didn't know him.

It wasn't long before he and everyone else found comfortable seats, but it was only a moment later that Mrs. Rockbell stood back up and started toward the kitchen to prepare the tea. Edward shook his head. This woman was working herself too hard. He stood up.

"Uh, I'll take the baby for you while you prepare the tea… if you want." He caught himself scratching the back of his head. Why was he so nervous? He was awkward though, even he could see that. He was too old in a place where he was supposed to be very young. It was all very disorienting.

"Why, thank you… what's your name?" asked Mrs. Rockbell.

"Uh… Edward!" His shoulders jerked up to a tense, alert position, and then relaxed again when he realized he hadn't thought that response through and he began to feel stupid about it. He probably shouldn't be telling people his name, because who knew what trouble that could cause if he had really traveled through time, but what was done was done."

Mrs. Rockbell handed baby Winry to him and said, "Thank you, Edward." She then turned to go back into the kitchen, and Edward, staring at the baby in his arms in awe, slowly made his way back to the living room and ever so carefully sat down in his seat.

A jolt ran through his spine as something clicked in his mind, and he turned to Mr. Rockbell. "H-How old is Winry, anyway?"

"A couple months," he responded with a chuckle. "Why, are you writing a report on her?"

Edward snorted at him. He just couldn't help it. He had no need to write reports on babies, even if the baby was going to grow up to be an evil lady with a wrench. What really concerned him was that Winry was a couple months older than him, so where would that place him in this time?

He looked back up at Mr. Rockbell and asked, "What's the date today, anyway?"

The man looked over at a calendar and said, "It's the second."

Edward looked over at the calendar too, and his face turned white. "The second of February?"

"Yeah, why? Are you-"

"No, I'm not," said Edward, before Mr. Rockbell could make the same joke twice. In fact, he was worrying. If Winry was this tiny, then that would mean the year had to be 1899, and if it was the second of February, then he would be born… tomorrow. He never realized he could be so terrified of something so ordinary. But it generally wasn't ordinary to be in the vicinity during the time of one's own birth.

Being here in this time meant that he would be able to see his mother again, and he would go through with doing that no matter how weird it got, but he might want to steer clear of the birth. She had had complications during his birth, and he didn't want to get in the way. She'd said some sort of alchemy doctor had been passing through at the time and had managed to save her life. That was something he certainly didn't want to screw up.

By and by, Mrs. Rockbell came in with a teapot and a tray of teacups and sugar and set it down on the coffee table. Edward waited for everyone else to help themselves, and then he shifted Winry so that she wasn't in his way and prepared his tea. Mrs. Rockbell noticed this and said, "Oh, you don't have to keep holding her if you don't want to."

Edward smiled and tipped his teacup into his mouth before answering. "No, it's fine. I like her company." Little did the Rockbells know just how true that was. He flashed baby Winry a knowing grin and she gurgled back, but something in those blue eyes of hers knew something was up with him, as though she recognized him from somewhere but couldn't remember where.

It seemed the Rockbells noticed this too, because Mr. Rockbell said, "How do you _do_ that? She's not normally this comfortable around strangers."

"I was about to ask the same thing," said Mrs. Rockbell.

Edward shrugged. "Maybe I just remind her of someone." He tickled Winry's nose and she chuckled, which spread and made Edward chuckle too. Winry was a really cute baby. It was surprising he had never realized that in all the years he'd known her. Though there weren't many baby pictures left of her in the time he came from.

Mr. Rockbell simply shook his head in amusement, while Mrs. Rockbell sipped her tea in silence while focusing all her attention on Edward like he was going to sprout another head or something. Both the Rockbells seemed to like him well enough, so he couldn't quite figure out what her problem was. But she wasn't being negative either, so he probably wouldn't need to worry.

After they had all finished drinking their tea, Mrs. Rockbell gathered up the dishes and made to go wash them, when Edward offered to do it for her instead. She turned and sent a playful glare in his direction. "If you want to do the dishes, then give me my baby back. I'm starting to miss her!"

Edward held Winry out in front of him, who gave him a baby's version of a raspberry, and both he and Mrs. Rockbell chuckled. "I'm not sure what that means in Winryese," said Edward, "but I suppose I can make the assumption that she wants to see Mommy again." He held the baby out to Mrs. Rockbell, who took her and switched burdens with Edward.

They walked into the kitchen together, and Edward washed the dishes while Mrs. Rockbell told him where everything went after it was washed.

"Thank you, Edward, dear," said Mrs. Rockbell, giving him yet another smile and then looking at her baby, who was looking at Edward. The little thing wouldn't take her eyes off of him, so Edward gave her a little wave. She flapped one of her chubby arms like she was trying to wave back, and both Edward and Mrs. Rockbell laughed.

Mrs. Rockbell then turned to face Edward. "Have you secured a place to stay during your visit here?"

Edward shook his head and shrugged. "I guess… I wasn't thinking that far ahead?"

The woman shook her head in what seemed to be a sort of frustrated pity. "Dear, the inn is most often full here. It's not wise to come here without plans for lodging, especially in the winter."

There was nothing Edward could do about the situation, so he just stood there, looking stupid. This day had been rather warm for a winter's day, but he knew that more chills would be soon to follow, and he really didn't have anywhere to go. He could probably talk his parents into letting him stay with them, but that might spook them too much at seeing their son is a time traveler, or it could mess something up.

A hand extended toward Edward and took him by the shoulder. "You're welcome to stay with us. You've already shown us that you're more than courteous, so I feel safe in letting you stay here."

"Th-Thanks," said Edward, and then out of reflex, he reached into his pocket as he said, "How much should I pay you?"

Mrs. Rockbell insisted that he was their guest, and therefore could stay free of charge. It was a good thing too, as what Edward had instinctively pulled out of his pocket was his state alchemist pocket watch, and that thing would be useless for a few years. There was not yet a bank account for a state alchemist named Edward Elric because he hadn't even been born yet, even though he was strangely standing right there.

Still, he wanted to protest being given charity without compensation. "I should at least give you _something_. Equivalent exchange and all that, right?"

The woman smirked and said, "Why, are you an alchemist?" Edward nodded, and then it dawned on her face why Edward was acting the way he was. "I get it. You think you're not allowed to get something if you don't give something in return." She laughed and shook her finger at him. "I know your type."

"Very well," she said, "I'll give you a few chores to do around the house, and then we can call it even. Deal?"

"Deal," said Edward.

Mrs. Rockbell smiled and handed the gurgling baby back to him. "Okay then, here's your first chore. Go change Winry and put her to bed. All her baby things are in her room. And she might need a few lullabies before she falls asleep, so I hope you're up to singing."

Edward could feel a blush coming on, and when he looked up at Mrs. Rockbell, she chuckled at him, so he tried to chuckle back, but it was a rather self-conscious chuckle. Winry was only a baby. It wasn't like he was singing to adults, and it wasn't like he was trying to serenade Winry. She was a _baby_ in this time, and he needed to remember that.

Without waiting for further instructions, he carried Winry up the stairs and went into her room. Holding Winry out in front of him so the two could look eye to eye, he said, "Now look, I've got to change you. Don't you go holding a grudge against me for seeing you naked and hit me with a wrench as soon as you're able to hold one up. Got it?" The baby gurgled again, so Edward just smiled and put her on the changing table. This journey he had started on was really weird, but thus far he had found it rewarding.

Meanwhile, two people stood at the foot of the stairs, looking up to the top. Mrs. Rockbell turned to her husband and said, "He carried Winry right up to her room before I could tell him where it was." She paused as the two took a few minutes to let that sink in before she spoke up again.

"How does he know our house?"

**_Dun dun dun... Now even I don't know where this story is going anymore since all I had previously written were these three chapters, and so I have to get to work on the next one. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to suggest. Otherwise, I hope to see you back soon when I upload the next chapter! :)_**


	4. Chapter 4

**_Yeah, I updated within a reasonable timeframe! I wasn't sure whether I would or not, even though I really wanted to. Keep your fingers crossed and hopefully I'll be able to do it again soon!_**

**_Disclaimer: AdventureAddict is trying to suggest a disclaimer, but hers are making less sense than mine, so I don't think I'll use them. Just know that I don't own FMA and we'll all be okay, okay? Okay._**

It had been frustrating to try and come up with an explanation as to how he knew the Rockbells' house so well. They didn't believe anything he came up with as an explanation, though when he thought back to it, he could understand why. Claiming he had been there before they moved in didn't make sense when he looked younger than they did, not to mention that that still didn't explain how he knew where Winry's room was. They didn't believe the idea of him having popped over for a visit once before and they just forgot either. They'd insisted that they would remember if he had shown up at all. Edward wasn't so sure they'd remember him no matter what, but he couldn't argue with them when he knew he was a fraud. His lies were terrible. Even Al always saw through his lies.

His stomach sunk to his feet. He missed Al. Was he ever going to see him again? Logically he should be able to at some point since Al remembered seeing his older self while still young, but would he honestly have to wait that long? Couldn't he just pop to a time now when Al existed?

Edward stretched out on his bed and closed his eyes. It was hard to say whether he was awake or asleep as visions of him and Al playing together flashed through his head. He could easily be imagining it instead of dreaming it. Perhaps what he was experiencing now was the real dream, and he'd wake up and be with Al again before he knew it. That was a comforting thought. Then a mental stab of pain to the gut brought him back to reality. He had had this thought before. He probably wasn't going to wake up.

A cry of alarm brought him out of his delirium, and he slowly sat up and blinked his eyes as he tried to adjust to the darkness around him. The Rockbells were running around in a frenzy, trying to collect various things from the house. He poked his sleepy head out of his room and caught Mrs. Rockbell as she was going by. "What's going on?"

"Trisha has gone into labor. We need to get there quickly to help her with the birth." She turned and ran a few steps, then stopped and turned back around to face Edward. "You said you were an alchemist, right? Why don't you come with us? We may need your services."

Sleep vanished from him in a split second, and he stood up straight, eyes wide open. "I-I don't know..."

"You'll be fine, come on!" She grabbed his arm and ran to the front door and shoved him outside, keeping the door open so she could toss things through it into his waiting arms. He was shaking throughout his entire body. The last thing he wanted to do was interfere with his own birth, and he didn't know a thing about medical alchemy. He was not the alchemist doctor he'd been told about. He would have already suspected his role as such if he'd had such skill.

Before long, the Rockbells had gathered everything they needed, so Pinako grabbed Winry and they all joined Edward outside and sprinted the distance between their house and the Elrics'.

The journey between the two houses hadn't seemed so long in his memories of childhood. He and Al had traversed this distance many a time without batting an eye, but now that he was doing it again here and now, it seemed to stretch on forever. Was he just growing old or was the time stretching out because he was terrified?

At long last they arrived at the house. The Rockbells unloaded things from his arms and proceeded to march into the house. He hoped he could get away with staying outside and avoiding all the commotion going on within. It was too dangerous for him to be involved with his own birth. It was dangerous enough for him to loop back on his own timeline, and so he wanted to stay out of the picture until he was safely born. Even so, he could still be putting Al's life at stake if he wasn't careful. Al wouldn't be born for almost a couple years.

Fate was still toying with him. Winry looked over in his direction and whined, and Pinako, taking in the situation, marched over and grabbed Edward's hand and dragged him inside. "Idiot! What do you hope to accomplish by letting yourself catch cold? It's the middle of winter out there."

"Yeah, I know, Granny, I-" He stopped himself short. Calling her by that name certainly had not been intentional, but it had come out all the same. Had she noticed? If there were any gods in the universe, he prayed that they'd blocked up her ears enough so that she hadn't heard a thing.

"Granny?" she said, "Why did you call me that? I don't look that old, do I?"

Great. Maybe there were no gods in the universe, though maybe they just didn't listen to people who didn't believe in them on a regular basis. He shook his head vigorously. "No, no, of course not!"

"Then where did that ancient title come from?"

He shrugged. He felt cornered. What was he to do? She was technically a grandmother now that she had Winry around, but with that being her first grandchild, she had never been called Granny yet. She wasn't going to understand no matter what he tried to say, but maybe he could at least get her to drop it.

He scratched his head. "Uh, you remind me of someone I know, I guess." He offered a nervous little laugh and felt the sweat rolling down his neck. Would she accept it?

It was hard to say what her reaction was, but she didn't say anything more at the very least. She pretty much just shrugged, handed Winry to Edward, and then walked into the next room, leaving him stupefied. Now what was he supposed to do?

Winry stared at him with her innocent little baby face and sucked on her hand. It was hard not to smile at that, especially knowing how non-innocent she would be in the future. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad if he could just keep out of sight and take care of Winry until all the crises were over.

He sat down on the hard wood floor and balanced Winry on his lap. She looked at him curiously, like she was trying to solve some great mystery about what he was up to. Well, he wasn't really up to anything at the moment, but he supposed he could indulge her. He set her on his knee and gently bounced his knee a few times, causing the corners of her mouth to twitch slightly upward. He smiled in turn. It was easy to please a baby Winry.

After a momentary lapse in activity in the little foyer he had stationed himself in, the door opened and in walked a man in a long coat, stamping his boots free of the snow that had accumulated on them and then turning around and shutting the door behind him to avoid freezing the entire house. He then turned back around and finally noticed the person sitting there, holding baby Winry, and Ed drew in a breath. This was his father.

Hohenheim drew in a breath too, and Ed didn't know why. Maybe it was because the two of them looked so similar and his father had recognized that right away? Surely it wasn't anything weirder than that, since Hohenheim had never met his son before this point.

His father raised his eyebrows and pointed his finger at Edward authoritatively. "You!" he said, "What are you doing here?"

Edward had to blink and he found himself shaking his head with his mouth hanging open dumbly. His father recognized him? In this time? And was he angry about something? What could he possibly have done to make his father angry when the two theoretically hadn't met each other yet?

At the sight of this reaction, Hohenheim chuckled and relaxed his shoulders. "We've been trying to find you ever since your little matchmaking trick to thank you, but you had just vanished. Now that Trisha's about to have our first son, we wanted you here all the more to join in the celebration of the moment, but we thought we'd never see you again."

Edward continued to blink stupidly. Surely his father was mixing him up with someone else. He had never met his father before this moment. That was impossible. That was so... wait... he was a time traveler, wasn't he? Maybe the two really did meet at an earlier date. That would certainly explain why his father seemed to recognize him at this point, but how much did he know? Was there any way to ask without looking too stupid?

Hohenheim was getting impatient waiting for Edward to respond, and so he sighed and rolled his eyes before asking, "Where have you been the past few years, anyway?"

And then he paused and waited for a response. That jerk, forcing him to reply. What if Edward didn't want to reply, had his father ever thought of that? Apparently he hadn't. A response would have to be concocted, and quickly.

"I uh... I had amnesia. Yes, amnesia! I had a bad reaction in a science experiment and forgot everything, and so I've been wandering around the past few years and finally stumbled upon you here."

Hohenheim remained silent for a few moments, making Edward nervous at his very silent presence. It was hard enough when the man was talking and giving no consideration to how anyone else was feeling about the situation, but it was even harder when everything went silent. How was one supposed to react when everyone had stopped talking? Was he supposed to be the one to break the ice, or should he wait until someone else did it? The whole think just stunk, and he wished he could just go back to his normal life in his normal time with his normal brother already. Wait, scratch that, his brother wasn't normal and never would be, but he wanted to see Al again anyway.

"So..." said his father as if trying to fish for words. "Did you make any progress on that experiment we were working on?"

Great, now he had to report on something he knew nothing about and sound half intelligent about it. How was he supposed to do that? Wait a minute, he had just told his dad that he'd gotten amnesia! He could just claim that he'd forgotten everything and his dad ought to buy it. It was worth a try.

"I don't actually remember anything about the experiment." He drooped his head in mock shame. "Amnesia. Sorry."

His father regarded him with a quizzical eyebrow, and Edward wasn't sure the man had accepted his explanation, but he wasn't calling him a liar either. It was at least better than nothing, he hoped.

"Amnesia, huh? That stinks. Hopefully you'll get your memories back soon. Do you still know alchemy?"

Before he even thought about what he was doing, Edward found himself nodding. Oh well, at least he actually knew what he was claiming to know. He felt better understanding something in this whole menagerie of madness, and his father smiled a knowing smile, almost like he understood what Edward was going through. It made the boy shiver a bit involuntarily.

"Excellent," said Hohenheim, who then reached down and grabbed the boy's hand and helped him to his feet. "Come on in and see Trisha. She'll be glad to know you're here as well."

Panic raced through Edward's nerves, and he tried to pull away from Hohenheim's grip. There was no way he was going to go in and see his mother before his younger self was born. That was way too dangerous. Wouldn't he run the risk of making it so he didn't exist or something? That was how all the science fiction stories went. Maybe they were secretly written by a time traveler crying for attention or something. He didn't want to brush them off as nonsense right then since he didn't know what to make of anything anymore.

He had to do what he had to do. Without giving his father any warning, he twisted his arm and his wrist fell out of his father's hand, and then he bolted out the door. He was going to run as far as he could get from this place and never come back, as tempting as it was to see what things were happening around this house. It was just too dangerous for him to stick around here.

A baby's cry snapped him out of his fight or flight syndrome, and he stopped running and looked down at the baby in his arms. He couldn't run off with Winry like this; it would hurt her too badly. He knew nothing about raising children, not to mention that her family was wonderful and he wasn't about to deprive her of it, especially since there wouldn't be many years for her to spend with her parents. A pang of guilt hit his stomach at that thought, and he turned around and looked back at the house.

Hohenheim was leaning against the door jam with his arms crossed. Was he daring Edward to leave while he was watching when everyone knew he was still holding Winry? That bastard. Maybe it was this incident that first started the hatred between the two of them.

"If you really don't want to be with be with us, you don't have to," said Hohenheim, "but I thought you would want to see Trisha." The man looked disappointed, and Edward felt a bit guilty. As much as he had developed a loathing for his father over all this time during his father's absence, he didn't see any need to deliberately hurt the man.

Edward took a couple steps forward and held Winry out to his father, gulping in his nervousness as the man hesitated to take her. But after a few minutes, Hohenheim did take the baby from his arms, and Edward spun around 180 degrees and took off running away from the house, again intending to get as far away from that house as he could in one sprint.

After a while of running aimlessly, he stopped to catch his breath and looked around. Without even realizing it, he had run close to the town cemetary. It figured that he'd run here if he let his subconscious mind have its way. He visited this place too often, and he was too curious now for his own good.

Edward cleared his throat and dusted off his pants. It would do no good to visit the dead with unnecessarily dusty pants, after all.

It was eerie to walk through the seemingly familiar plot of land and recognize very little about it. He found the headstone for that neighbor girl, Martha's great-grandparents, but aside from that, he couldn't find anyone he knew here. None of his family was dead yet.

"Interesting view, isn't it?"

Edward snapped his head up to find the disrespectful intruder, and found another boy standing only a few feet away. A chill came over him as he stared at the boy, and he took a step backward. No, please no, not another one of himself, please!

He clenched his fists and glared at his double. This was getting a bit annoying, running into older, know it all versions of himself over and over. Well, he didn't have to take it lying down.

"What do you think you're doing here?" He hoped the other Ed could pick up the venom in his voice and shiver at its utter awesomeness, because he was just that scary, or he hoped he was.

"I'm you, you idiot!"

Oh yeah, he'd forgotten that little detail. Oh well, he could still try to make his older self squirm. After all, if this older him was as smug and self-assured as he seemed, then he could handle it fine when he became the older Ed and had a younger idiot harping on him.

He put his hands on his hips and stuck out his tongue before saying, "Says who?"

"Says you, you dummy, didn't you get that from the first interaction?" They both paused. Edward wasn't sure what he wanted to say anymore. His older self was too smart, and he didn't like admitting that since it wasn't really taking that much intelligence to win against himself right then.

The older Ed spoke up again. "Is this your first jump or something?"

Edward crossed his arms and huffed, hoping that would buy him enough time to think up a witty response without his double realizing that he was trying to do that.

If he knew his double like he thought he did, then he could tell that the other guy had just rolled his eyes in the darkness with a you're-so-stupid-I-pity-you look. He really hated his older selves.

"Yep, this is your first time alright. There's no denying how stupid I was back then." He shook his head and continued. "Look, you might as well just go back to Mom and Dad's house and enjoy yourself because there's nothing you can do to change anything. Time is fixed." The other Ed paused, and Edward noticed a wobble in his voice as he said, "What will happen will happen."

"But what if I end up killing Mom or make it so that me or Al don't exist?"

The other Ed shook his head. "Can't do it. There's no way. Everything is set in place, so you might as well just ride with it instead of fighting it."

"But-" Edward's voice trailed off. What was the point of objecting with another question, anyway? He knew exactly what his older double was trying to say, so why make it harder for himself than it needed to be?

He couldn't resist one question though. "Did you-did you try to save-Mom?"

The other him turned away from him and looked in the direction of the house. "You should go. There's someone you miss waiting for you in that house."

And without another word, he was gone, having literally vanished from sight before Edward's eyes. Had that been what he'd looked like to Al when he'd vanished that first time? That was creepy. Edward found himself shivering. He really didn't want to see that again. Ever.

Still, if his older self said he couldn't change time and that there was someone he was supposed to meet, it was probably best he returned to the house. He could tell when he himself was lying, and his double hadn't been at that time. It was scary, and he hated to admit it, but his older self was probably right.

He took a deep breath and picked up his pace into a sprint back toward the house. Hopefully his family would still accept him after that charade, but he was still going to go and see things through. He had made his decision; there was no turning back now.

**_Thanks for reading, and hope to see you back here soon. Got any ideas? Feel free to let me know. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed it, and I'll update as soon as I can!_**


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